Vitamin C - The Overlooked Miracle Drug

In medical school, there is little or no time spent on vitamins, and thousands of hours of instructions spent on pharmaceuticals (drugs). As a result, most MD’s are “educationally handicapped” about vitamins.

In the days of “wooden ships and iron men”, the most dreaded disease was scurvy. It was the result of a lack of vitamin C. Captain Cook and others found that a little bit of lemon or lime juice every few days prevented it, and kept their sailors better able to do their duty to King and Country. This is where the term “limey” came to be applied to English sailors.

THE MYTH: At the beginning of the last century, the then US government became somewhat more worried about the public health than today’s government, and funded several cereal companies to research and find a minimum amount of vitamins that would prevent the deficiency diseases of scurvy, pellagra, and beri-beri.

Of course, the cereal companies were mostly concerned about pellagra and beri-beri, (deficiencies of niacin - then known as B3, and a deficiency of B2. So, they set up a MINIMUM DAILY ALLOWANCE (MDA) chart. It was (and is) designed to just be barely enough to prevent these three terrible deficiency diseases. It has been modified and added to along the way.

Also, along the way, the food industry lobbied successfully to change that name to “Recommended Daily Allowance”. This sounds better, and it leads the public to believe (as they now do) that this RDA is somehow good enough for good health. The RDA is definitely NOT sufficient for good health. That’s the myth that has been promoted by advertising. The RDA amounts are barely enough to prevent bad health. Particularly with vitamin C.

Because of this wide belief, even researchers are misled. Since the RDA for vitamin C is only 75 mg (less than one orange a day), then anything 5-10 times that amount MUST be a “megadose”. And that amount is used to test vitamin C, and to “scientifically prove” that vitamin C cannot cure a cold, a flu, or a virus borne disease at all. Take any such “studies” with a salt shaker!

What isn’t well known is the actual RDA for “good health”. It turns out that is about 4000 mg (4 grams) of vitamin C per day per 150 pounds of every primate. Every zoo vet knows this and since a 150 pound ape is very valuable, they carefully make sure that they get this amount in food and supplemental vitamin C. Since vitamin C only lasts in the bloodstream for 4 hours or so, splitting up any dosage Is best. I use 2 grams AM and PM for this reason.

You should know that all primates, including the apes (and us) lost a very important enzyme some 65 million years ago that chemically changed glucose (blood sugar) into Vitamin C in the blood. Virtually all other animals actually manufacture vitamin C in their bodies, increasing it with stress and or disease. That’s why cats, dogs, vultures, and other animals can eat dead meat loaded with bacteria and not get sick. (if we could get that enzyme back, we’d be very healthy with all the junk food that transforms into glucose.) Oh well!

That ratio of about 4 grams per 150 pounds of body weight seems to be pretty good one for establishing “good health” guidelines for vitamin C. A small mouse generates a proportional average amount of vitamin C daily. So does a cow, or an elephant. The actual amounts that are generated depend on how much is needed to combat any stress, fight germs, etc. Studies show that most animals can generate i0 times this average as needed.

I weigh about 200 pounds, and I eat enough whole fruits so that I believe that 4 grams per day is right for me. I take 2 grams with breakfast, and 2 more grams at supper, leaving the noon for taking of other vitamins and minerals. This way, the supplemental minerals needed aren’t taken out of the bloodstream by the vitamin C too fast.

VITAMIN C AND “GERMS”: Probably the most important job that vitamin C does is kill bacteria and virus cells in the bloodstream. Let’s call them both “germs” for simplicity. Remember that this killing is only effective in the bloodstream. If “germs” get into an organ or a cell, vitamin C cannot reach them.

Vitamin C kills invaders by combining with them, and this uses up the available vitamin C fairly quickly. Bacteria and viruses multiply quickly. Both double in about 20 minutes. This means that if you take only enough vitamin C to kill off half of the invader before being used up, in another 20 minutes, the invader is back up to the previous strength.

Very few of those scientists use much more than a few grams of C in their tests. Let’s say that 2000 mg is used. That might kill half of the invaders as in the example above. Or, let’s be very generous. Let’s say that that dose kills off 99% of the invaders. Would you believe that it only takes 140 minutes to get back to original strength?

The above is why it is necessary to saturate the blood with vitamin C, and keep it saturated for some time in order to kill all the invaders. This takes massive amounts of vitamin C. Now you see why some of the “scientific studies” on vitamin C are not so scientific at all. Again, a clear case of educationally handicapped.

VITAMIN C AND BOWEL TOLERANCE; While it is impossible to harm yourself by overdosing on vitamin C, there is a point where the “overdose” causes diarrhea. This is actually a very interesting signal. Where this saturation point is for any individual is different, and dependent on several factors, Bowel tolerance is used by alternate therapists to determine actual saturation level. Overdose until that point where diarrhea just starts, then cut down to just below that point.

The problem is how to cut down to that “point” just before diarrhea. Cut down too little and you run the risk of the “germs” recovering, multiplying, and getting out of hand again. Too much, and diarrhea may cause dehydration. (Diarrhea ain’t much fun anyway.)

Whenever I even think I might have a flu or cold coming on, I start taking 2 grams every hour until I just start diarrhea. Then I cut to every 2 hours or maybe every 2.5 hours trying to keep the bloodstream saturated with vitamin C, and trying to just keep at that point between blood saturation and diarrhea.

As the “germs” are killed, that bowel tolerance gets lower and lower, so you have to keep cutting back just to the point below diarrhea.

If you don’t get to that bowel tolerance, then you didn’t get enough vitamin C. I’ve seen patients get to 65 grams of vitamin C in one day. I sometimes get to over 40 grams in a day with flu, but it’s over in 24 hours.

VITAMIN C AND CANCER: Vitamin C research on cancer isn’t new at all. Our only two time Nobel prize winner - Linus Pauling - wrote at length on this subject. He did a research in Scotland with 100 “terminal” cases of cancer and 1000 other “terminal” cases used as controls. (Terminal cases means that the persons have an estimated 3-6 months to live). The test patients got 10 grams per day in divided doses, and the controls got none.

The results were startling. As I recall, about 80-90% of the controls had died while most of the tested ones were still living. At the end, all the controls died, while at least 40-50% of the tested ones were alive, and many of those were still alive 5 years later after full remission.

Once again, education handicap is present, Few MD’s realize that it takes very large amounts of vitamin C to saturate the blood, and without this, the virus wins because of the reproduction rate. Adding vitamin C via injection is much simpler for large amounts.

Cancer has been found to be “mediated” by virus cells for many cancers. However, there are several cancers - prostate, cervical, vagina and breast cancers that are mediated by hormones, and vitamin C is impotent against these.

An ironic fact: Linus actually died from prostate cancer, yet he was taking 18 grams a day of vitamin C. That mediation factor was unknown to him obviously.

As you can easily see, that RDA figure of 75 mg is woefully short, and leaves us very susceptible to both bacterial and viral diseases.

Vitamin C and Chelation: This brings us to one of most important uses of vitamin C - chelation of minerals, particularly the heavy metals which are toxic in very small quantit6ies.

Chelate means to “grab onto”, and there are several different chelators used today. The “standard” is a chemical called EDTA, and you can sit in an MD’s office with a needle in your arm for an hour, a couple of times per week for a few months or more, and it will take out any heavy metal that is toxic.

While vitamin C isn’t a true chelator, it works the same magic of removing minerals from the bloodstream. It does it by combining with all minerals (good and bad) and making a new chemical out of the combination that is water soluble. This means that it can be filtered out by the kidneys and excreted by the urine pathway.

Remember that it takes out ALL minerals, so you MUST supplement with needed minerals while chelating out all.

A new one called zeolite has had mixed reports, and there are several more touted on some alternate health web sites. I cannot recommend them, as I have no experience with them.

The problem is that so-called heavy metals are toxic to human in even small amounts. These include mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium, and even excess copper. (I worked with several schizophrenic persons with excess copper chelating it out successfully in my former practice.)

Since I was not an MD, I couldn’t prescribe EDTA or other chelators. So, I learned that vitamin C works just as well as any chelator. It also has several advantages over the commercial chelation therapies as well. First, the cost is much lower. Next, you have much better overall health while getting the problem solved, even if it takes a year or two. Last, and certainly not least, there is no danger whatsoever.

YOU CAN’T OVERDOSE ON VITAMIN C! The worst that can happen, even to a baby, is that it may cause diarrhea.

There are some MD’s that have been using chelation for years to take out excess calcium. Remember that vitamin C takes out all minerals, so while chelating in any way, you have to put back in the “good” minerals your body needs. (This is why you take any mineral supplements at least 4 hours after taking vitamin C.)

The idea here is to get the calcium so low that even the calcium that is the “backbone” of the plaque in the arteries and veins is taken out. The rest of the plaque consists of fat deposits that are washed away by the bloodstream easily. This therapy is much cheaper than by-pass surgery and much safer with no deaths recorded. I recommend using it instead of by-pass surgery.

Mineral Measurement: There are several ways to measure all the minerals, but none are very accurate. If you measure the blood, you get a measurement of what it was when the sample was taken, and that may be very different a few hours later.

Because all minerals are excreted thru urine, a sample there is slightly better, although it also can vary widely. A 24 hour collection is much more accurate.

Another excretion route for minerals is the hair and fingernails. The bloodstream deposits the minerals into those cells. Hair is a perfect biopsy material. It doesn’t spoil, and can be shipped across country in a simple envelope.

This method is pretty accurate, but there’s a confusion factor. There is a huge difference between the minerals that are needed in the body, and toxic minerals. The minerals that are toxic are recognized and are very quickly taken out of the bloodstream by the liver and stored in various places in the attempt to keep them out of the brain where they may cause actual brain damage.

Since the ratios of these toxic minerals are measured against the “regular” needed minerals,
If there is little or no chelating agent in the blood stream, the brain will not release those toxic minerals from storage.
In autistic children, the levels of vitamin C and glutathione (natural chelators) are often found very low. Supplementation of glutathione doesn’t seem to be very effective, and most MD’s don’t even know about vitamin C as a chelator. So, the result of tests for mercury in many autistic children often shows up negative, even if the child is loaded with mercury in storage.

This, in my opinion is part of the controversy about mercury in vaccines causing autism. The usual testing for mineral toxicity just isn’t accurate enough for these children.

If you want to test your mineral status, and particularly your toxic mineral status, start loading up on vitamin C for at least a few days prior to either a blood or urine test, and a couple of months before a hair analysis. This pre-loading allows the release of any toxic minerals from storage into the bloodstream and subsequent excretion.

One last point about vitamin C. It is made from corn sugar. There are many people in the US who are allergic to corn. If anyone has allergic reactions to multiple vitamins, it’s often because of corn allergy, and it’s “unknown” as such to the person. If this is the case, you will have to use Calcium Ascorbate instead of plain Ascorbic Acid. The CA form is generally non allergenic.